John 6:55-58 - This is the bread that came from heaven

6:55,56

Natural food and water keeps us going, but the body and blood of Jesus gives us eternal life. They are true food and true drink, they are what we should be focused on above all else. If we feed off His flesh and blood then we abide in Jesus, and He abides in us. “Abide” is a keyword (among many others!) in John’s gospel. Right at the beginning of the gospel we read of the Word being with the Father. There is a closeness of relationship, and we too are meant to have that closeness of relationship with God. We should note two things in particular. First, it is not a matter of ourselves getting lost in some universal consciousness, or anything like that. When we abide in Christ we do not lose our identity, rather our own identity is enhanced in Christ. We become who we were always meant to be. Secondly, it is not a relationship of equals. We learn from Christ, we feed off Him. He does not learn from us, so that is the approach that seems to be taken by rather too many theologians!

6:57,58

Another key message of John is that the Father sent the Son, this is absolutely crucial to any proper understanding of who Jesus is and His mission. Jesus lives because of the Father. Earlier we read that the Father granted for Jesus to have “life in Himself”, and so Jesus is able to give life to whoever believes in Him. Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. Jesus reminds them again that though their forefathers ate the manna, they all died. The bread that Jesus gives enables us to live forever. The Jewish leaders needed to recognise how much greater Jesus is than all that came before, and how much greater the offer is. And today we need to realise just how much greater the offer of the gospel is than anything the world may have to offer.